Galveston committee wants to get the facts about the gambling issue

After debating the merits and drawbacks of casino gambling for years, it’s time island residents got some facts about the issue, members of a community recovery committee told the city council Thursday.

The committee, which has spent the last four months creating a list of 42 projects to help the city recover from Hurricane Ike, is recommending the city support a gambling feasibility study that would objectively assess the effect casinos would have on the island.

Committee members want the city to ask the Galveston Chamber of Commerce to conduct the study as soon as possible.
“It’s best for this community to put this issue to bed, once and for all,” committee member and local real estate agent Barney Rapp said. “Let’s get the hard facts.”

Most people’s reaction to gambling is based only on their prejudices, emotions and beliefs, committee Chairwoman Betty Massey said.

But no study will ever provide answers that everyone will be happy with, Councilwoman Elizabeth Beeton said. And Galveston voters already have spoken on gambling, altering the city’s charter in 1989 to forbid another referendum on the issue until the state legislature passed laws to make establishing a casino possible, she said.

“We have dealt with this many times in Galveston,” she said. “I thought we had put it to bed.”

Beeton also suggested the study’s conclusion would be biased, since several members of the chamber’s board of directors are vocal supporters of gambling.

But the rest of the council members said they wanted to see what the study would show.

“If I’m up here at such time as council will be addressing the issue, I want the data to see what the impact will be,” Councilwoman Karen Mahoney said. “It’s important to say we want to be prepared. Part of that is to have the research in front of us.”

Even Councilwoman Susan Fennewald, the only other council member to speak out in opposition to gambling, said she could support a study, if it collected very specific data.

Both Beeton and Fennewald had said they feared any vote to support a gambling study could be used by gambling proponents in Austin to prop up legislation now being debated in the state capital.

But in light of the gambling legislation, the worst thing the city could do is put its collective head in the sand, Mayor pro tem Danny Weber said.

“It is possible that something will come out of that legislature and say it’s done,” he said. “If we don’t have the facts, we’ll be behind the eight ball. It’s critical to get the facts we need, instead of all the hype.”

The council will reconsider the gambling feasibility study and the 41 other projects next month, deciding which ones to move forward first.

Some of the projects will be passed on to other organizations for implementation, but the council will have to vote to support or fund most of the plans.

Massey has asked the council to at least take each project to its next development step, a request City Manager Steve LeBlanc said he wanted to support.